Understanding Malay voters

Changing demographic: Some were surprised that many urban Malay voters voted for conservative PAS. — AZHAR MAHFOF/The Star

FROM about a year before November’s general elections, right up to the present time, this writer has been inundated with questions about Malay voters, especially those who voted for Perikatan Nasional.

My catch-ups with friends have been intense, and the ones grilling me were urban, English-educated or English-speaking Malays who come from middle to upper middle income families, aghast at knowing their “rural counterparts” dared to vote for Perikatan, especially PAS, which is a component party in the coalition. My acquaintances’ religious leanings vary from liberal and secular to religiously observant Malays – and 90% wanted to know where these “kampung Malays” were from.